


By the Twinkle in Your Eyes

by ohjustdisarmalready



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dating, Fluff, M/M, Minor Violence, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 04:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13651881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustdisarmalready/pseuds/ohjustdisarmalready
Summary: Kravitz and Taako have a date, and Kravitz wants very badly for it to go well.





	By the Twinkle in Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chaWOOPa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaWOOPa/gifts).



> Asexualgrif, who this is gifted to (I hope you like it! Did studying go well?), wrote the gorgeous poem that inspired this (here with permission):
> 
> If I could ask for anything  
> I would only ask for this  
> A lifetime spent beside you  
> To feel the starlight in your kiss.
> 
> A thousand little glances  
> A thousand gentle touches
> 
> We would find a home together  
> It doesn’t really matter where  
> ‘Cause anywhere is perfect if  
> I can see the stardust in your hair.
> 
> A thousand loving words  
> A thousand helpful gestures
> 
> And oh the memories we’d make  
> By the twinkle in your eyes  
> So that when our time was up  
> They’d be scattered ‘cross the skies.
> 
> Isn't that gorgeous??? This is set a couple months into their relationship, maybe 2-4. Before Wonderland, during the honeymoon phase of falling in love.
> 
> Warning for mentions of drowning and being crushed to death but like, Taako is clever and Kravitz is immortal/dead so it's not an issue

There are very few places Kravitz can’t get to if he sets his mind to it.

There’s no ward that can repel Death forever; there’s no plane of life eternal. He has seen wonders and horrors and oddities that aren’t really either. He has favorite places to go on nearly every plane, full of quiet beauty and boisterous life alike.

Somehow, he cannot think of a good date location.

He is experiencing… _intense_ regret.

“We’ve seen all the moonbase has to show you,” Taako had said.

“Trust me, one more night making pottery and you’ll snap and kill me anyway,” Taako had said (he was absolutely wrong, in every conceivable way, but he’d said it).

“Why don’t you show me somethin’ special, huh?” Taako had said, and winked, and Kravitz is _weak_.

The problem is, well, he can’t really…he can’t show Taako his home, because if Taakoever actually goes to the Astral Plane with a death count like his his technicality goes right out the window; and he can’t exactly bring Taako to the Plane of Fire because he would burn to death and die; and he wants to show him so _many_ things even just on the Prime Material Plane but when he thinks about it, he can’t imagine any of them holding a candle to this beautiful, ridiculous, clever, messy, _alive_ elf.

And what does it matter where they are, really? What Kravitz wants is to spend time with Taako, in whatever form that takes. He wants to use all of his eternity with his arms around him and his face buried in his hair, just talking. If Taako would let him, he would.

But Taako is a whirlwind caught up in an elf, and Kravitz really, really wants to impress him with this one. He’s been fucking awkward enough when Taako has brought him to his actual home in the sky, which is incredible enough on its own, and he can, he can be cool too, okay? He’s the Grim Fucking Reaper, Actual Servant to an Actual Goddess, it’s not like he has nothing to bring to the table, here!

Taako is sort of an emissary of Istus, though. Apparently. Kravitz cannot bring himself to be surprised that Fate is fond of him.

But. Kravitz has, he also has cool date places to show off to his beautiful and very impressive date. He has had actual months to think of them while Taako shows him every nook and cranny in the surprisingly-large moonbase.

Which is why they are now on the ocean floor in an elaborately-constructed air bubble restaurant.

Taako steps through the rift behind him and Kravitz has, he has so many regrets. There’s nothing less attractive than finding out someone is a gross eater. What if there are new customs he’s forgotten about? Taako has never taken him out to eat before, and it’s not like they’ve lacked opportunity. What if he just looks at Kravitz and knows he’s, he’s, terrible at food, or something. Kravitz doesn’t even know what he might do wrong. Lady below, he doesn’t even know what a faux pas is anymore, and they’re underwater and Taako can’t exactly teleport himself out of the literal ocean if he wants to leave, and is that creepy and predatory? Is it weird to bring someone somewhere where they can’t leave? He’d just liked how the water looked when he’d been here before, and he’d thought maybe—

“Holy fuckballs,” Taako says, doing a slow spin around to look at the restaurant under the sea. “You know, when you said we were eating in the ocean, I thought you meant, like, on a boat.”

Kravitz laughs a little breathlessly.

“No, ah, welcome to Atlantis, Taako.” He gestures to the whole place, like Taako isn’t exploring it already. Tritons and mermaids intermingle outside, going about their business, and inside the bubble there are a couple of other land races: a drow who’s just sort of always there (at least when Kravitz is), a couple of beach dwarves, some ambiguous mostly-human sailors at a table laughing loudly.

Taako raises his eyebrows at the dwarves, but walks first to the edge of the bubble.

“Some serious transmutation goin’ on here,” he mutters. “What’s that, water shape, maybe tied to an object? Would have to be, huh, behind the ounter. Maybe. Gotta be some kind of sorcerer lengthening the spell, though—no, that’s bullshit, that’d be exhausting, they can’t just live here and cast forever. Serious fuckin’ enchantment, whatever it is, maybe—no, that—”

Kravitz follows him to the edge, bemused. Taako has a light in his eyes and an interest in his stance as he pokes the sea wall in front of them that usually only shows itself after a couple glasses of wine or hours of conversation, once he’s forgotten to keep his guard up. If he’d known all he has to do to light Taako up like this was show him some impressive magic, Kravitz might have looked for someplace more suited to it (that dracolich’s hoard…was that still there? Hadn’t there been some serious magic keeping that going? Also, he’s killed a dracolich, that has to be worth something? Maybe next time).

Not that Kravitz is much into the arcane, really. He’d had only ever used the magic that came naturally to him. But Taako’s little grin as he says an arcane command and shapes a little of the water into a worm that devours a tiny tower, and then as he splashes them both back into the wall, is a good enough reason to learn a little bit. Goodness knows Taako had taken him to enough of that sad bard’s concerts to pick up a level in bard himself, if he’d wanted to.

Taako as a bard. Somehow, Kravitz can see it, and that only makes him snort as he tries to suppress a laugh.

Abruptly, Taako seems to remember that he’s here.

“Right, um, don’t mind me, simple, um, um, idiot wizard here! Just some—really cool magic, actually, that’s—uh, you don’t care. How about you show me around, handsome?” He tucks into Kravitz’s side and links their arms, which, that’s really nice. Taako just slotting in next to him like he belongs there, warm and grinning and lacing their fingers together. Kravitz would like to live here, in this moment, forever, please.

But he’d also really like to see Taako drop the bedroom eyes and go back to looking fascinated by the magic around them. He may not know too much about making enchantments or lengthening spells, but he knows passion when he sees it and he wants to hear Taako talk about what he loves.

“How about I show you around once we’ve eaten, and in the meantime you can tell me what goes into this place? You mentioned maybe a sorcerer?” he proposes, and Taako looks startled for a moment, glancing around like there might be some other wizard taking this place apart with a glance, before he remembers his bravado.

“I mean, that’s uh, ch’yeah! I can, I can talk magic, I’m fucking—fascinating. Is this a, a seat-yourselves type of situation, or are they gonna stab us if we do that, or…?” Kravitz worries, sometimes, at the sheer amount of casual violence in Taako’s life. He wonders for the hundredth time if he can convince him to do something less dangerous, once these Relics are taken care of. There can’t possibly be that many more of them, can there?

“I sincerely doubt they’d stab us, Taako. I know the owner; we can sit wherever.” More accurately, he accidentally helped save the business by killing the necromancer that was turning the waitstaff into zombies. He has a lasting invitation to come by and grab literally anything in the restaurant.

Taako raises his eyebrows.

“Well aren’t you impressive,” he says. “Mister I-don’t-get-out-much has hidden depths.”

Kravitz grins in a way that is hopefully charming and allows Taako to lead him to a booth with a fantastic view of the underwater city.

“And how about you, hmm? I’d think you’d be done with transmutation after that kerfuffle with the lab,” he teases, hanging up his cloak and holding a hand out for Taako’s. Taako scoffs.

“Hey, that whole night was bullshit, okay, that’s not what transmutation is all about,” he says, “Transmutation is a baller school of magic and it can do more than, than fuckin’—ice-nine pink tourmaline or some shit, any day!”

He’s gesturing widely, making a cutting motion with his hand as he extols the virtues of transmutation and scowling like Kravitz has personally challenged him. Kravitz can’t help but grin to see it.

“Do tell,” he says, completely besotted. Taako points right between his eyes.

“I fuckin’ will, okay, you’d better sit fuckin’ _tight_ for the greatest learning experience of your entire death, the best transmutation wizard on the moon is about to learn you a thing or two,” he says. “I couldn’t show off my completely baller transmutation shit with the null suits on, but I’m about to blow your damn _mind_.”

Kravitz leans his cheek on his hand and listens. Even Taako’s definitely-cursed, somewhat worrying umbrella seems to lean in from the cloak rack.

He can’t blame it. Kravitz is caught up in Taako’s gravity with absolutely no hope of escape. Even inanimate and probably evil objects have to see that.

What follows is a passionate, well-researched lecture about the virtues of turning something into something else, and the value of pawning off transmuted gold to some fool who doesn’t think to arcana check it, and the various in-battle and out-of-battle uses for the power of infinite change. Kravitz thinks Taako could have taught at a university, in another life. Certainly, he could have researched in one. He can claim to be an idiot all he wants, but, well. Kravitz knows the top of the field in necromancy, and they’ve never managed to make it as interesting, and funny, and charming, and…

“—hey, actually, uh, Krav?” Taako cuts himself off, losing the sparkle in his eye in favor of glancing around the restaurant through his lashes.

“Yeah?” Kravitz asks. That’s such a cute nickname. He hasn’t had a nickname in several hundred years. Maybe if he doesn’t provide the conversation Taako will keep talking.

“Just, uh, just—never mind,” Taako says. “I was, I was talking about how transmutation keeps this place up, right? And how, uh, if it’s permanent it would need someone to recharge it every so often, and that’s tricky ‘cause you can overload it, or, or break it, right?”

_Don’t freak out_ , says Taako’s voice in his head, and Kravitz jumps out of his actual skin for a split second.

“Hot,” is all Taako has to say out loud, before going back to talking about magic.

_You done freaking out? Don’t say anything out loud. We got a problem, maybe_ , Taako says again. Kravitz frowns, tries to think of what it could possibly be. They’re together, and having a lovely evening out, aren’t they? Is Taako not enjoying himself?

_What is it?_ He tries to direct his thoughts at Taako, but this is different from his connection to the Raven Queen and he isn’t sure if that’s how it works.

_Every fifteen minutes, that drow in back pushes his hair behind his ear_ , says Taako, which is, that’s a little creepy. S _ame interval, the sailors go from talking about their last adventure to lewd comments about sirens. No transition, cuts off midsentence every time._

A pause while Taako flicks his hand, and the glimmer of magic reapplied.

_The waiter with the blue apron passes by the table with the dwarves and one of them swipes his tips at minute seven._

Come to think of it. How long have they been here? And in that time, none of the waitstaff have even acknowledged them.

_Kravitz, you did not just walk into a trap because you were too busy being gay to pay attention_ , he tells himself, and Taako snorts. Outwardly, he’s doing a deeply impressive job of keeping a monologue up, but now that Kravitz knows what to look for, his eyes are idly scanning the room a little too frequently, and his gestures bring his hands close to his staff more often than not.

_Sorry, bubeleh. Look like that’s exactly what happened. You got True Seeing?_ Taako asks. _Wait a second on it, though. Element of surprise and shit._

Kravitz nods as subtly as he possibly can, brushing his hair back so he can reposition his hands in front of him, ready to call his scythe at a moment’s notice.

_Gonna cast Mislead, I haven’t actually disappeared_ , Taako says. Kravitz, who would definitely have panicked if he cast True Seeing and discovered his date was an illusion, thinks back, _Of course you haven’t, I know that._

Taako winks before getting cheerier and more animated, just slightly.

“And that’s why transmutation is a baller school of magic. Did you know transmutation is, like, the fucking best? And also better than all other schools of magic, forever?” says the double.

_OH SHIT NOW CAST IT RIGHT NOW DIVE LEFT_ , says Taako, and Kravitz launches himself straight out of the bubble just in time to see an axe bury itself in the seat where his neck had been. Taako’s cloak and umbrella swirl around him before he breaks invisibility to cast a massive fireball at the five ruffians surrounding their booth. They all appear to be land-dwelling species, Kravitz notes. The owner of the restaurant had been a triton.

_Haven’t got a lot of AC, could use a hand!_ Taako’s voice echoes in his mind as the elf himself jumps on top of the booth, scrambling away from the physical attackers in front of him. There appear to be two casters of some sort hanging back, so seven total, probably. Maybe more somewhere else?

Normally Kravitz would go for the casters to eliminate the source of the most damage first, but, well. He would be a terrible date if he left Taako to get cut up by whoever these thugs are. He switches to his skeletal form and gets back in the bubble and in front of the booth, swinging his scythe in a long sweep ahead of him.

“Who are you and what have you done with Dthari?” he demands, drawing the attention of the casters, too. He gets a spell that flies straight past him for his efforts, splintering the table but not damaging him.

_Gonna do some baller transmutation shit, watch my back_ , Taako says, and leaps off the booth before Kravitz can stop him. He gets an unnatural amount of airtime and Kravitz makes another sweep while the ruffians are distracted.

_Just don’t—stay behind me, hour HP is shit you’re gonna get yourself killed!_ Kravitz thinks at him, and Taako spares time to stick his tongue out before dashing to the central counter and sliding over it, narrowly missing another spell and a crossbow bolt.

“Don’t stay behind you! Got it!” he shouts, so Kravitz at least knows he hasn’t jumped into a trap. He catches two of the thugs with his scythe and knocks another unconscious with the hilt while Taako curses and clanking sounds come from behind the counter.

Kravitz really hopes he isn’t just stealing from the register. He would feel bad for thinking that, except that he has seen Taako eat a bomb that used to be part of Kravitz’s body that used to be part of Merle’s arm. It’s within the realm of possibility.

A crossbow bolt lodges between his ribs, which does precisely jack shit because he’s made of bones, honestly, what are these people thinking. A blow from the battleaxe does a bit more damage, but leaves the woman responsible open for a swift execution before he takes down the crossbowman.

Shouts come from a door that was hidden before, which opens to reveal…more enemies. Kravitz can’t get a count in the midst of battle, but it’s definitely more than ten.

“Taako?” he asks as he dashes to the two mages.

“Two seconds!” Taako responds. “Hope you like to get wet!”

Kravitz whips around mid-sprint, nearly tripping over himself as he does. Maybe that had been meant for dramatic effect, but—

“Taako you can’t breathe under—”

He is crushed to the floor under the weight of the entire world, it feels like. Bones snap like twigs and he has to shed his skeletal form, floating as a soul and still overwhelmed by turbulence tumbling him around and back and forth as he reconstructs his humanoid form hastily.

He slams into the display case next to the register.

_Taako!_

There’s no response—whatever spell Taako had used to communicate is no longer in effect. He can’t find his soul in the Ethereal Plane, though.

Dear Dark Lady, it is going to be hell explaining why he broke his boyfriend’s soul out of the Astral Plane.

Just as he’s about to open a rift to retrieve Taako, though, there’s movement behind the counter. Too deliberate to be the current. A bundle of gray struggles with itself for a moment and as he swims over, Taako’s head pops out from under the counter.

Holy shit.

_Water shape, bitches_ , Taako says.

Kravitz takes advantage of the spell’s reappearance immediately.

_How did you do that? Weren’t you saying the spell keeping the bubble up was—holy shit you can’t breathe, Taako what the fuck, you’re going to die! Why aren’t you keeping any air? Taako! Come with me just once second let me just_ —

_Can’t hear you, babe, spell doesn’t allow for monologues_ , Taako says. _Check it, I can breathe underwater! Knew this cloak would come in handy!_

Kravitz stops midway through opening a rift, probably getting water all over his living room. It was the first place he’d thought of.

Now that he looks, though, yeah, Taako seems to be breathing…just fine, actually.

_If you’re secretly part triton I am slam-dunking you into the Sea of Souls myself, you scared me halfway back around to life again_ , Kravitz thinks, still coming down from the adrenaline high. He lets the rift seal back up, though. Wouldn’t have really helped, bringing Taako to the Astral Plane to keep him from dying.

Also, his hands are put to much better use gripping Taako’s shoulders, patting him down for injuries, bringing him in for a close hug. Unthinking, he starts to take a deep breath and chokes on it.

_Don’t you try to breathe water too! Just—open a rift! Moonbase!_ Taako shakes his shoulders as he coughs instinctively, gasping in water and fighting the panic that wants to rise.

Blindly, with his hands, he tears open a ragged rift to his second favorite part of the moonbase, the one he comes to most often, and small hands wrap around his waist and tug, and he is suddenly heavy as he tumbles onto the floor of Taako’s living room.

He curls to the side and coughs up water, heaving in deep, body-shaking breaths and trying desperately to tell his body that he’s not alive, he doesn’t need the air it’s demanding. A quick shift out of his flesh and then back in takes care of the remaining water, though, except for a feeling in the back of his throat like he needs to cough.

Once he can focus on anything but the pressing need for oxygen, he recognizes Taako’s voice.

“Yeah, that’s it, okay, okay. Um, breathing. Just, you, keep going, with that. The breathing. Plenty of air. We are surrounded by it for like, a mile or some shit, I dunno how high up we are. Breathing. Good. Yep. Or you can get boney again, that’s cool too, if you wanna, no? Okay, yeah, just gonna crush me to death. You know, when I think about you gasping and dripping wet on top of me, this is not what I pictured. Oh, hey. You with me?” Taako ducks his head to meet Kravitz’s eyes, but that last bit had triggered its own, completely separate cough, which had started up another coughing fit.

“Right then, cool, just gonna—gonna cough on me. You’d better not be carrying gazillion year old Astral Plane diseases or you’re outta here, bucko. Taako doesn’t do sick.” He continues to ramble quietly and keep his hands on Kravitz’s back, stroking hard in time with his breathing.

“I don’t think the Astral Plane is physical enough for germs to survive,” Kravitz says, inanely. “Also, that was incredible.”

Taako shrugs as best he can. “Yeah, I’m pretty fucking amazing. Also, cold and wet, and if we both suffocate today I’m calling it a bad date.”

“Right,” Kravitz says, and rolls off him. Neither of them get off the floor, though. “But it’s not a bad date yet?”

Taako looks over out of the corner of his eye and cracks a wry smile.

“Hot guy listens to me talk about magic shit and I get to demonstrate by bringing an entire restaurant down? Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” he says.

Kravitz might be in love.

“Wanna watch Fantasy The Bachelor and I’ll make some shitty microwave mac and cheese? When it gets dark we can, you know, do your mushy shit, it’s s’posed to be, you know, clear, and shit, and Leon said there were comets coming by but Leon’s full of shit so we’re even odds on that one,” Taako says in a rush. He waves his umbra staff and Kravitz is not only dry, but for the first time in a very long time, he is warm.

Kravitz…is in love.

“That sounds absolutely perfect,” he says. “I’ll need to check up on—whatever happened down there, eventually, but—I would love to do that with you, Taako.”

Taako’s warm eyes remain on him for a moment, soft and content, before he rolls to his feet.

“Fuck yeah, let’s get this party _started_!”

Maybe Kravitz can talk to the Raven Queen about taking him home. She’s always been fond of strays.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it wasn't clear (logistics that didn't get in the story bc it's a romance not an action/adventure):  
> -Taako realized what was up bc shit didn't feel right when he arcana checked the bubble in the beginning, also, he is now attuned to bubbles in which things repeat, so he was paying attention  
> -The repetition was bc there was an illusion over the restaurant that repeated a typical 15 minutes over and over, the folks there did not expect anyone to waltz right in and sit down to talk about transmutation for hours  
> -Kravitz legitimately did not realize how much time had passed, he was very distracted by a pretty elf being nerdy about magic  
> -Taako worked for fantasy NASA and was apparently one of their top seven folks, you CANNOT tell me he doesn't get his nerd on about particularly cool transmutation magic  
> -Related: Stolen Century Taako would totally get the spell keeping the bubble up in like, 2 seconds. There's no way he hasn't had to create a self-sustaining atmospheric zone before. However, that's head and shoulders above what most of Faerun's wizards (and therefore canon-era Taako) can do, and also like, mad specific, so Taako has to think a little harder on it.  
> -Taako brought the bubble down by wrecking the spell holding it up, which was attached a stone set in the counter below the register, in the middle of the bubble  
> -Taako wasn't crushed to death because he used the spell Shape Water to prevent the impact from hitting him until the water settled  
> -Cloak of the Manta Ray gives him the ability to breathe under water  
> -Taako was using the Message cantrip to talk to Krav, and it maxes out at 24 words, which cut Kravitz off at "Taako, what the fuck" (mood)  
> -Who was in the restaurant and why would take an entire other story to tell. Maybe their next date is investigating that shit. who knows  
> -Approximately half of their dates planetside end in a fight with someone, often because of Kravitz's work but also sometimes bc Taako is a dick/wanted for mass murder or they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time  
> -Taako has a stutter as explained [here](https://lichlesbian.tumblr.com/post/170745997463/lichlesbian-things-that-are-extremely-important)
> 
> (notes as long as the damn fic, this is what i get for writing romance)  
> I hope you liked it! Please tell me what you think!


End file.
